I was in Audlem, south Cheshire, last weekend to fulfil a promise to my girlfriend who, after a decade living in Scotland – where they would more likely have bought Guy Fawkes a drink than mimic burning him – yearned to see some flames.

My only gripe was the health and safety folks keeping everyone so far away on an adjacent car park that I couldn't even feel the heat on my face, thus depriving me of a re-run of one of my most comforting childhood memories.

Oh, and the queue at the Audlem chippy. But perhaps I should be thankful there was even an event to go to, as there are fears that spending cuts could see events cancelled across the north.

The 50,000 people who braved the cold in Darlington's South Park to see the town's traditional free firework display may be deprived of their pyrotechnics next year, reports Lauren Pyrah in the Northern Echo. Councillors seeking to make savings of £22m are poised with their scalpels to incise the annual event from their budget. This year's display, which had a Hollywood theme, passed without serious incident – quite remarkable considering the size of the crowd.

I'm sure Darlington will see if charging next year could help them keep the tradition going, taking a lead from the organisers of Sutton bonfire, near Skipton. Village committee chairman David Harrison Young was forced to make a plea in the local Craven Herald for residents to stump up cash to watch the fireworks, and not just peer through their curtains.

"What people don't seem to realise is that we get no funding for the event. They seem to think it is supported by the council," he said. "What people need to know is this is the last chance saloon. If they stay at home and don't come along and support the event, it won't be going ahead next year." The event costs about £8,000 to stage, largely due to the cost of the fireworks.

The main bonfire weekend danger seemed to come from Chinese lanterns, particularly in rural areas in the north where they pose a greater risk to livestock and crops. The lanterns, which are made from paper and lit by a flame at the base, can rise to more than 1,200 feet and fly for up to 20 minutes.

Cumbria county councillor Gary Strong told the News & Star the lanterns were a "nice alternative" to fireworks "when used correctly and safely, [but] they are not designed for use in anything other than a fairly light wind and it's very easy for the lanterns to go a long way off course and potentially cause problems".

Alfie Watkinson, two, was sitting with his sisters 20ft from the fountain-style firework when part of it flew out of the ground during a family bonfire at their home in Bolton. It landed in his pram, injuring his left eye and setting fire to his coat and the pram. Alfie's horrified mum Jenny Walters threw a cup of cold tea over the firework to put it out.

Jenny, 32, told the MEN: "It really scared me. There was blood in his pupil and all around his eye. There should be a ban on fireworks because nobody should have to go through what I have been through with Alfie. He was very lucky to only come away with the injuries he had. We'll never be having a firework display here again."

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One man who enjoyed last weekend more than most of us was Scouse dramatist and bombastic Liverpool fan Jimmy McGovern, whose team beat Chelsea 2-0 at Anfield. About time too, after their worst ever start to a season. McGovern stoked northern rivalries this week, however, after the Liverpool Echo reported that he writes anti-Manchester United bias into his scripts "every chance I get".

The writer of Hillsbrough and The Street – which, even as a ManYoo fan, your correspondent loved – said he was approached by the BBC's compliance unit over certain scenes in the latter, a series of gritty vignettes set in working-class Manchester.

"I asked: 'What is the point of this unit?' And the response was: 'It's in case you cause offence.' They've asked questions, particularly about the anti-Manchester United bias in The Street – there was this big spiel about a character wanting to shoot Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand.

"I told them every chance I get I write with anti-Manchester United bias. I'm a dramatist. Imagine on my tombstone if it read, 'Jimmy McGovern, writer – never offended anybody'. How would I feel? That's my job."

McGovern's latest series, Accused, begins on BBC1 on Monday.

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It's annoying enough when you have to take a detour for roadworks, but it's even more irksome when signs tell you to avoid somewhere that doesn't exist, as drivers in Wigan have found over the last three weeks. The Wigan Evening Post, my old paper, reports how "unnamed contractors" resurfacing the junction of Cale Lane and Kirkless Street in New Springs have caused much mirth among motorists with the sign they put up every weekend.

Perhaps it was a bad phone line from the site office to the sign-printers; perhaps the person who put the sign together isn't familiar with the area and is a little hard of hearing. Whatever the problem, the upshot was that drivers were told they couldn't make the turning into the mysterious thoroughfares of Kay Lane and Kikless Street.

Laura Baker from Whelley said: "You would think that when the workmen can see the signs for the two streets mentioned that they would spot they had got it wrong. "There's no such place as Kay Lane anywhere in Wigan and while I've heard quite a few strangers call Kirkless Kirklees, this mis-spelling is a new one on me. Maybe the names were read over the phone and someone misheard."

Wigan council's head of highways, Mark Tilley, said, rather humourlessly: "We sincerely apologise to members of the public who may have been inconvenienced as a result. We will be raising this issue with the contractor."

Robert Clark recommends

Hints To Workmen, Sunderland, Northern Gallery For Contemporary Art, until 5 February

Could hardly be more timely could it? An exhibition on a theme of cultural resistance to capitalist corruption and political deception.

The show takes its title from a mid-1840s educational pamphlet that suggested the powers-that-be take a paternalist responsibility in advising the workers how best to conduct their little lives. Parallels are drawn with the recent advent of "Nudge Theory" which basically suggests the same thing today. So, a roll call of international artists, including Baptiste Debombourg, Anna McCarthy and a graphic individual called Stuffit, have been invited to variously rage against the machine.

Tactics of resistance include creating one's own currency in Zurich, cycling headlong into oncoming traffic down major thoroughfares of capital cities of the former Soviet bloc, and a subcultural stuntcar spectacle in Paris in which only the crippled front halves of the cars are raced.